As a general rule of thumb, we can accept most new things in life, providing we give it 10 years. It is just more than a decade since London started electing mayors again, and we haven’t rejected the idea so far

Now the talk is about giving them more powers. London hasn’t yet manned the barricades, nor does Westminster seem to wish to man them either. Mayor Boris Johnson is at pains to stress that “localism” can be nurtured and allowed to flourish across London’s boroughs. Of course, all this will be led by the mayor.

It’s unclear what all this actually means in practice for the role of local leadership. Talk drifts off into “double devolution” and requests for clarity of the “general power of competency”.

The mayor put forward his thoughts in his report the Mayor of London’s Proposals for Devolution with, no doubt, a supportive national government recognising all manner of efficiencies that could be made if these thoughts were to be implemented.

That document proposes that the mayor of London should carry a greater authority over a broad range of activities and institutions, including approving suburban railway franchises; power to intervene in traffic control; waste; policing; expenditure on skills development; energy; climate change and health.

He also wants to subsume the Royal Parks Agency, the London arm of the Homes and Communities Agency, the Olympic Legacy, the Port of London Authority and the London Resilience roles and functions, as well as a general power of competence extended to the mayor, enabling him or her to deliver local services.

The final piece of the jigsaw, and arguably the most important, is the proposal to equip the London Assembly with enhanced powers to hold the mayor to account and form policy.

This is an extensive list but, in the right hands, could serve London’s future well. But unsurprisingly, many thoughts do pop up. The future of urban regeneration in London, particularly east and south-east London, is one big pop-up for me.

I am an advocate of the London Thames Gateway and of 2012’s role as the catalyst for the social and physical regeneration and London’s expansion eastwards into the Lower Lea Valley.

By creating a metropolitan district in which we would wish to grow up and work, we can ensure that east London’s future growth will directly contribute to the future prosperity of London and the UK, as well as to the citizens of east London.

Realising such a socially led outcome requires everyone to share their statutory powers of intervention and their ability to apply statutory powers. The relationship between the authority held in Westminster, City Hall and the town hall becomes key in realising this.

By all means enable the mayor of London to have authority over regeneration in the capital, but the mandate must be seen alongside the equally powerful local mandate. Powers for successful area-based regeneration must be shared between local and regional. The Lea Valley is at heart a local ambition able to realise wider objectives, it places social values as the primary catalyst for growth, economic ones follow on.

There are pressures bearing down against this aspiration and not just from the mayor’s list. Defining double devolution and clarifying the general power of competence is crucial. It is
this that will define the nature of localism and regeneration in London for the next 10 years.

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Guy Nicholson is Hackney Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games

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